The dust blows forward
and the dust blows back


Don Van Vliet (RIP), Fur On The Trellis and Just Up Into The Air, 1985

* From Harper's January 2011:

-- Number of offshore oil and gas leases approved by the federal government since 2005: 4,603

-- Number of offshore wind projects approved since then: 1

-- Estimated price paid by panhandlers in Johannesburg to rent a baby for the day: $3

-- Tons of marijuana the Mexican government burned in October following a major seizure: 148

-- Estimated number of joints that could have been rolled with this much of the drug: 268,000,000

* Palace Songs: Christmastime in the Mountains.

* "Genre is a bookstore problem, not a literary problem." -- Rick Moody